It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. - Jerome K. Jerome

But memories are short, it seems. After leaving InfoSpace Jain started a new company, Intelius, across the street from his old offices in Bellevue, Washington. The company sells background information on people - they describe themselves as an “information commerce company.” They’ve grown rapidly and now claim that over four million people have purchased products from them. Revenue has grown from $18.1 million in 2004 to $88.5 million in 2007. In their most recent fiscal quarter, ending March 31, 2008 the company had $31.8 million in revenue, a nearly $130 million run rate. They are also very profitable, with $22.5 million in EBITDA in 2007.

Well.. the culture and bribery talk is all crap! They deplore Naveen while they seem to think that everything with stock market is legal. in 1920 the whole of the stock market business was illegal cos it creates fictitious capital. -- RK

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Dr Bose, a former MIT professor of electrical engineering who has revolutionized the quality and concept of stereo loudspeakers, is only the second Indian American after Dr Rangaswamy Srinivasan, whose invention of ultraviolet surgical and dental procedures resulted in what is known today as LASIK surgery, to be inducted in the Hall of Fame.

According to MIT's biography of Dr Bose, who is both an alumnus and former professor of the institution, his passion for technology continued at MIT, where he earned Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering. He embarked after his BS on a personal crusade to invent a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the vivid sound that a member of the audience hears at a great concert hall.

In 1956, he was asked to join the faculty at MIT, where he taught until 2001. His research at MIT led to the development of new, patented technologies.

In time he succeeded in achieving this goal inventing the direct/reflecting speaker system in 1968, one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum. He has also worldwide fame with customized sound systems for automobiles and active noise reducing headphones.

The Hall of Fame has noted that under his leadership 100 per cent of profits of the company are reinvested back into the company, enabling advancements in non-audio areas.

In 2004, after 25 years of research, he introduced a revolutionary suspension system that combines superior comfort and control in the same vehicle.

India uses the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to calculate and then decide the rate of inflation in the economy. Most developed countries use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate inflation.

The main problem with WPI calculation is that more than 100 out of the 435 commodities included in the Index have ceased to be important from the consumption point of view. Take, for example, a commodity like coarse grains that go into making of livestock feed. This commodity is insignificant, but continues to be considered while measuring inflation.

WPI does not properly measure the exact price rise an end-consumer will experience because, as the same suggests, it is at the wholesale level.

Regulation imposes a huge burden on consumers and the economy. While precisely calculating regulatory costs is difficult, a recent study performed by economists Thomas Hopkins and Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration estimated that regulations cost Americans $843 billion in 2000, or some $8,000 per household – close to what Americans pay in income taxes.

Streamlining (and eliminating) regulations would do much more for U.S. competitiveness across the board than subsidizing the production of scientists and mathematicians and tinkering with the tax code. It wouldn't hurt to make it easier to hire people rather than more complicated. Then we can look at reducing taxes across the board.

Innovation comes less from official guidance than from unexpected breakthroughs and applications by mavericks and established companies alike. The best way to facilitate it is through freedom rather than central planning.

The burden of complying with the income tax is tremendous. Since its inception in 1913, the tax code has gone from 400 pages to over 67,000. The Tax Foundation estimates that around $265 billion dollars and 6 billion hours are spent just on compliance. That expense amounts to about 22 cents of every dollar the IRS collects. Imagine the boon to the economy if we spent that time and money expanding our businesses and creating jobs!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

There are two cancer risk factors about which scientists have no doubt: tobacco and age. Smoking dramatically increases the risk of cancer--90% of all lung cancers cases can be linked to smoking. Eliminate cigarettes and cancer deaths would drop by a third. Not much can be done about age, however. Our cells constantly replicate themselves throughout our lives. As they do so, tiny genetic mistakes are made. Live long enough, and these mutations accumulate until they ignite uncontrolled tumor growth. The reason cancer is expected to become the nation's biggest killer in the next decade is becuase the population is aging, thanks to the baby boomers. Also, so much progress has been made against heart disease, currently the biggest killer, that we are living longer.Hopefully more progress will be made in deciphering cancer over the next decade, and new drugs will result that can change the outlook to the point where, we can live with cancer, not die from it. In the meantime, the best way to reduce risk is to quite smoking (or don't start), lose weight, and go for regular screening.

The objective of this project is to predict the structure of proteins of major strains of rice. The intent is to help farmers breed better rice strains with higher crop yields, promote greater disease and pest resistance, and utilize a full range of bioavailable nutrients that can benefit people around the world, especially in regions where hunger is a critical concern.

Determining the structure of proteins is an extremely difficult and expensive process. However, it is possible to computationally predict a protein's structure from its corresponding DNA sequence. The Computational Biology Research Group at the University of Washington has developed state of the art software to accomplish this. The difficulty is, there are thousands of distinct proteins found in rice. This presents a computational challenge that a single computer cannot solve within a reasonable timeframe. Therefore, volunteers of World Community Grid are invited to assist in this daunting task. Through collaboration with agricultural researchers and farmers, the hope is to eventually improve global rice yields and quality.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

"With all the time you spend watching TV," he tells me, "you could have written a novel by now." It's hard to disagree with the sentiment -- writing a novel is undoubtedly a better use of time than watching TV -- but what about the hidden assumption? Such comments imply that time is "fungible" -- that time spent watching TV can just as easily be spent writing a novel. And sadly, that's just not the case.

Time has various levels of quality. If I'm walking to the subway station and I've forgotten my notebook, then it's pretty hard for me to write more than a couple paragraphs. And it's tough to focus when you keep getting interrupted. There's also a mental component: sometimes I feel happy and motivated and ready to work on something, but other times I feel so sad and tired I can only watch TV.

If you want to be more productive then, you have to recognize this fact and deal with it. First, you have to make the best of each kind of time. And second, you have to try to make your time higher-quality.

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies provides a range of consultancy services, workshops and resources to help learning professionals understand, implement and use new and emerging technologies.

* Directory of Learning Tools contains over 2,200 tools that range from "traditional" course authoring tools to E-Learning 2.0 collaboration and sharing tools as well as tools for managing your personal learning. Find out what's new this week * Top 100 Tools for Learning has been compiled from the Top 10 tools shared by over 130 learning professionals worldwide and categorised into A Core Toolset for Learning 2008. Suitable for someone who wants to cut down their choices to a handful in each tool type. * iTouch Learning is a specialist section of the website devoted to the use of the iPod Touch and the iPhone for learning and performance support. It includes a list of the top web apps for these mobile devices as well as tips and tricks and supporting resources. * Short Course Unit offers a growing list of (onsite and online) short courses and workshops including An Introduction to E-Learning, 25 Tools and the upcoming online workshop:- Moving Learning 2.0.

Dan Hunter and I have a paper coming out in the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, which economic and technical innovation is increasingly based on developments that don’t rely on economic incentive or public provision. The main examples, obvious enough for readers here, include open source software, blogs and associated technical and social innovations, and wikis. Abstract and links to SSRN over the fold.

Paper is at SSRN (not paywalled, I hope)

Abstract:In the economy of the 21st century, economic and technical innovation is increasingly based on developments that don’t rely on economic incentive or public provision. Unlike 20th century innovation, the most important developments in innovation have been driven not by research funded by governments or developed by corporations but by the collaborative interactions of individuals. In most cases, this modality of innovation has not been motivated by economic concerns or the prospect of profit. This raises the possibility of a world in which some of the sectors of the economy particularly the ones dealing with innovation and creativity are driven by social interactions of various kinds, rather than by profit-oriented investment. This article examines the development of this amateur modality of creative production, and explains how it came to exist. It then deals with why this modality is different from and potentially inconsistent with the typical modalities of production that are at the heart of modern views of innovation policy. It provides a number of policy prescriptions that should be used by governments to recognize the significance of amateur innovation, and to further the development of amateur productivity.

We’re so quiet that few people know about us, but Distributed Proofreaders is an all-volunteer effort that has prepared nearly 13,000 free ebooks over the last seven years. We’re getting better at it, too.

You can find our books at Project Gutenberg, but also at manybooks.net, mobipocket, and other ebook sites. Many of them don’t credit us in the slightest. Sometimes that makes me feel sad; sometimes I just feel like a secret mistress of the universe.

I survive, barely, on what I make copyediting and proofreading books for pay. But my heart and soul are in the books I do for free.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

And so the time came for me to pick a boy. To marry. “You know, because twenty-seven years is the perfect age and your daughter has finished her education Mr. Agarwal,” and, “It is the right thing to do before she gets too old and all the good ones get taken,” and, “Because the good ones do get taken early Mr. Agarwal, in fact, it might already be too late to find a well-bred, single doctor/engineer boy for your daughter.”

And so, like most Indian girls whose parents start looking for an eligible match, my singleness was the topic of many a long conversation at miscellaneous social gatherings. “Beta, did you not find any nice boy all those years in college?” Translation: “You poor thing, you really should have gone on that diet I told your mother about last year.”

When you are in the market to buy an existing web domain name, always ensure that the site you are about to buy has a clean track record. Here are some online tools to help you run background checks against any domain for free.

1. Archive.org - The Internet Archive Wayback machine maintains snapshots of web pages as they change over time. You can use this service to find the kind of content that was earlier hosted on the domain that you are looking to acquire - stay away from porn and hate sites.

2. Dogpile - The next step is to find web pages that mention that domain name in their content. This is again to get an idea about the previous owners of a domain and what kind of content was available.Always do a search with and without ‘www’ added to the domain name (e.g., abc.com OR www.abc.com). You could either perform these searches on different search engines individually or use Dogpile that will simultaneously search Google, Yahoo, Ask and Live.com from a single page.

3. AdSense Sandbox - You want to make sure that the domain you are about to buy is not banned by Google AdSense.Type the domain URL in the sandbox to confirm that Google Ads are available for the domain else you may miss an opportunity to monetize the site via AdSense in future.

4. Yahoo! Site Explorer - This tool shows a list of web pages that are linking to a particular domain.Yahoo! Site Explorer, in combination with Technorati Search and Google link: operator, will help you ensure that the domain is not part of any bad neighborhood.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel"

Friday, May 09, 2008

Citing an effort to hold down costs, health insurance giant Blue Cross wants doctors in California to report conditions it could use to cancel new patients' medical coverage, it was reported Tuesday.

The state's largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history," the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.

"Any condition not listed on the application that is discovered to be pre-existing should be reported to Blue Cross immediately," according to the letter obtained by the newspaper.

One of the conditions noted in the letter that could force a new patient to be dropped by Blue Cross—pre-existing pregnancies.

WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based company that operates Blue Cross of California, said it was sending out the letters in an effort to keep costs at a minimum.

"Enrolling an applicant who did not disclose their true condition (and the condition is chronic or acute), will quickly drive increased utilization of services, which drives up costs for all members," WellPoint spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Here's how the indices work. Even though there are four country-specific indices, Sumeet Nihalani, senior director for Asia Pacific sales at Dow Jones Indexes, says that the appetite for dharma or faith-based investing is "global and from people of different faiths and nationalities." So asset managers can create global or country-specific products using these indices, enabling Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs to invest in stocks that are in sync with their religious beliefs.

Duraflex Flexible Keyboard is the "optimal keyboard", suitable for just about any workplace environment.. Simple to clean from dust, dirt and liquid, it's great for tougher environments within manufacturing industries. Perfect for infection-control-minded healthcare facilities and educational environments, too. This washable keyboard is manufactured in durable silicon enabling it to be rolled into a portable laptop case. The keyboard has soft and comfortable keys that respond exceptionally quickly to finger strokes. Benefits; portable, flexible and durable waterproof keyboard

Major findings of The Nature Conservancy/University of Minnesota study on land clearing and the biofuel “carbon debt” include:

* Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more carbon dioxide than the fossil fuels they replace.

* Converting lowland tropical rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia to palm biodiesel would result in a biofuel carbon dept that would take approximately 86 years to repay.

None of these are reasons I would ever suggest to someone who is choosing a framework. As someone who builds large-scale sites professionally, I view all (except for #6) of these reasons as counter-productive. It is why understanding the gap between professional tools (YUI/Dojo) and hobbyist tools (Prototype/jQuery) is so hard for people on either side of the equation.

He instead started a catering business of his own, inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. As a child, he also sold idlis in the slum where he lived. "We talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry," says Sarathbabu.

In August 2006, Sarathbabu's entrepreneurial dream came true with Foodking. He had no personal ambition but wanted to buy a house and a car for his mother. He has bought a car but is yet to buy a house for his mother. The "foodking" still lives in the same hut in Madipakkam in Chennai. Today, Foodking has six units and 200 employees, and the turnover of the company is Rs.32 lakh a month. But it has not been a bed of roses for Sarathbabu. After struggling and making losses in the first year, he managed a turnaround in 2007.